I started fcc very recently hoping to transition into software development from a completely different field. From my research, it seems reasonable that with enough time and grit, landing a junior developer position is quite possible.
However, for those of you who have managed to pull off this amazing feat, what are the career prospects moving forward? Presuming one continues to upgrade his/her skills and knowledge, can one indefinitely advance in the ranks? Is there a certain point or ceiling at which employers (even if just as a formality) will start asking for evidence of a CS degree?
I made my living coding for almost 15 years, starting as a self-taught junior developer and eventually earning six and (briefly, results probably not typical) seven figures with what Iâd learned mostly through experience. Advancement in this field is almost entirely driven by various capabilities. And I have to say, that by todayâs standards I was a mediocre programmer at best. The only ceiling I ever really hit was my own fatigue.
In my experience only certain types of employers, notably governments and government contractors, ever get tied up in knots over whether you have a degree âin the fieldâ. Iâve also been the position of hiring programmers and, personally when it comes to spending my own money, I am always more concerned with what a person can do than how exactly they learned to do it.
Mine is just one point of view, from experience, Iâm very interested to hear what others have encountered.
More like the first one. Education, if gone about in the right way, can help you gain capabilities and be rewarding in its own right. If anything I like to see degrees that show breadth as much as specialization. For example, I took two degrees in business because everything is a business one way or another.
But there is a big exception to what Iâm preaching and that is of course when a certain degree is required to be licensed in a certain professional path. Nurses, lawyers, doctors, professional engineers, etc. And this can always intersect with software development. When I worked at Johns Hopkins Medicine as many as half the programmers on some projects were also registered nurses.
Soâlong and shortâI think it can really depend a lot on what kind of career you are charting for yourself.
But I would never say donât bother. Degrees are worthwhile --they just shouldnât be looked at purely as job training, IMO.
I would distinguish between education and credentialization. Especially today in the programming field writ large, with such vast free resources available, it seems like it should be a possible for an intelligent and determined person to become a highly competent software engineer without a credential. Conversely, by picking the âright institutionâ and the âright courses,â it is certainly possible to get a degree without knowing much of anything useful.
Of course I totally agree that knowledge is worthwhile for non-financial reasonsâbut again, there is no special reason that knowledge of poetry, arts, literature, history, mathematics, etc need to be gained specifically in a college setting, paying many thousands of dollars per course.
The question wasnât âis education worthwhile,â but âis the particular form of credential known as a college/university degree worthwhile?â
@P1xt, @tdreid, it seems to me like weâre all really in the same mindset about this, although you both of course have far more tech knowledge and industry experience than I do. Namely, that you can go far with or without a degree, provided you put in mountains of work and become really really good.
I do think that a traditional degree is valuable and that some of that value is specific to that experience.
I do not think that a traditional degree is necessary to a successful career.
You asked about a ceiling. From my observations, it seems to be the opposite. The further along you get, the less relevant your original education matters. If you look at job postings for entry level positions you will often see a requirement along the lines of âB.S. in Computer Science related field or 5 years experienceâ. So how can you get that â5 years experienceâ? Thatâs where @P1xtâs advice comes in. Starting out, you have to be able to prove that you have practical knowledge and experience that is at least as valuable as a traditional degree.